ATM Jackpotting and many other similar cybercrimes are not likely to go away soon. Every forecast indicates that society should only expect them to increase. Ostensibly, the bank just loses some money, perhaps a good deal of money across multiple such jackpotting attacks. However, the real cost is much higher.

Cybercriminals have realized that they can not only physically attack ATMs but also access these machines over the network. Once they install malware and get an entry into the network, the potential damage they can inflict is endless. While a fully stocked ATM might yield a $50,000 haul, compromising an endpoint to an enterprise network might lead to tens of millions of dollars of losses.

The entire ecosystem – everyone from the ATM manufacturer to the end customer suffers. ATM manufacturers find themselves in the crosshairs of their financial institution customers as well as law enforcement agencies, who are eager to find how their product could be so easily hacked. Companies that manage ATMs for financial institutions face risks that grocery chains and drug stores might ask them to haul away their ATMs. The financial institutions, of course, take the worst hit of all. They are the ones who lose actual money and are targets for being hit over and over. This has implications for financial losses and insurance but also customer confidence. The final piece of the puzzle is the end consumer. They really are not impacted in any tangible manner; and yet, for most consumers, there is the ever-present concern that their data was likely stolen.